How to pay property taxes?

Question

Investors who own commercial property such as apartment buildings how do you pay property taxes? I was reading an article on this link https://www.nolo.com/legal-enc... and it said you complete an income and expense form. Where do I get this form from?

Anyone who invests in property how do you do this? Do you have an accountant who handles this? Do you do it yourself if so how and when?

Drew Holland · Answer

All of these answers are correct.  We pay property taxes for a number of clients and after you make your initial payment, find out the next payment and set reminders to pay.  This will help in any handoff to outsourced accounting.

Another item to keep in mind is the assessed value of the property by the taxing authority.  You're able to request for a reassessment of the property value if you think it's incorrect.  There is a number of companies that help with this process; one is Martin Poer I think.

Steve Vaughan · Answer

Property taxes are paid to and charged by the county the property is in.  Mine are due April 30 and Oct 30 (1st half, 2nd half).

The county will normally send me a statement with 2 coupon things to mail back.  If I don't have one, I simply look on the county assessor or treasurer page online and pull up by the property address, parcel number or owner name.

The amount you owe should be on there. Mail in a check payable to 'your county' treasurer.  None of my property taxes are mortgage-paid anymore.  I miss those days...

Carl Millsap · Answer

@Bellman Tumasang I recommend you call your County and City Property Valuation Assessment (PVA) office. They will tell you how to pay taxes, give you the forms etc.

Each government entity does it differently.

In my area our taxes are based on purchase price, it doesn't matter if it's an 4plex or large multifamily. The County and City determine the tax rate then multiplies it against the purchase price. Sometime in the Fall we receive a postcard with the property tax amount.

The City requires us to have a business license. We submit our tax return and they calculate the fee for that license.

Our bookkeeper does our taxes. Money well spent.

Andrea Weule · Answer

As soon as we had any amount larger than a few units we utilized accounting services.  To be honest, a big reason we got into investing was to have more write offs and take advantage of all the opportunities that businesses have.  Unless accounting or taxes/bookkeeping is your skill set, having a professional is 100% beneficial.  I've found that we save/keep more than it costs us to hire someone quality.

Beyond that a good accountant can help with things like financing, applying for SBA loans, and mostly saving time.  The less time I spend on my books/taxes the more time I can spend finding/creating my next deal!

Best of Success!